Three Muslim candidates, all fielded by the Congress, make it to Gujarat Assembly

Three Muslim candidates emerged victorious in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

Representational image

Ahmedabad: Three Muslim candidates, all fielded by the Congress, emerged victorious in the Gujarat Assembly elections this time, against two in the previous House.

The ruling BJP did not put up any Muslim candidate in the state where the minority community accounts for 9.67 percent of the population.

The Congress this time put up five Muslim candidates, three of them in urban seats.

The party nominees romped home in Jamalpur-Khadia and Dariapur in Ahmedabad, apart from Wankaner in Rajkot.

The Muslim candidates who entered the fray on Congress ticket in Surat-West and Vagra in Bharuch, however, lost to their BJP rivals.

Javid Peerzada (Wankaner), Gyasuddin Sheikh (Dariapur) and Imran Khedawala (Jamalpur-Khadia) are the candidates who made it to the Assembly on Congress' ticket.

The Congress nominee wrested the Jamalpur-Khadia seat from the BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which entered the Gujarat polls for the first time, fielded Muslim candidate Usman Gani Sherasiya from Wankaner seat. He finished way behind other nominees by securing just 2,808 votes.

The Janata Dal(United), which contested independently this time, unlike in 2012 when it was in alliance with the Congress, put up a Muslim candidate in Dariapur, but he got only 82 votes, as per figures of the Election Commission.

The Muslim candidates fielded by the BSP and the NCP in Jamalpur-Khadia also failed to make a mark.

In the 2012 Assembly elections, the Congress offered tickets to six Muslims, out of whom two had won.